41-3438. COMPLICATIONS OF PREGNANCY. No hospital or medical service corporation contract which provides maternity benefits for a person covered continuously from conception shall be issued, amended, delivered, or renewed in this state on or after January 1, 1977, if it contains any exclusion, reduction, or other limitations as to coverage, deductibles, or coinsurance provisions as to involuntary complications of pregnancy, unless such provisions apply generally to all benefits paid under the contract. If a fixed amount is specified in such contract for surgery, the fixed amounts for surgical procedures involving involuntary complications of pregnancy shall be commensurate with other fixed amounts payable for procedures of comparable difficulty and severity. In a case where a fixed amount is payable for maternity benefits, involuntary complications of pregnancy shall be deemed an illness and entitled to benefits otherwise provided by the contract. Where the contract contains a maternity deductible, the maternity deductible shall apply only to expenses resulting from normal delivery and cesarean section delivery; however, expenses for cesarean section delivery in excess of the deductible shall be treated as expenses for any other illness under the contract. This section shall apply to all hospital or medical service corporation contracts except any group hospital or medical service corporation contract made subject to an applicable collective-bargaining agreement in effect before January 1, 1977.
For purposes of this section, involuntary complications of pregnancy shall include, but not be limited to, puerperal infection, eclampsia, cesarean section delivery, ectopic pregnancy, and toxemia.
All contracts subject to this section and issued, amended, delivered, or renewed in this state on or after January 1, 1977, shall be construed to be in compliance with this section, and any provision in any such contract which is in conflict with this section shall be of no force or effect.
History:
[41-3438, added 1976, ch. 113, sec. 3, p. 445.]